A Master of None

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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

So, my husband is a veterinarian and we finally decided to open our own Vet clinic. This has been a huge under-taking. In addition to everything involved in starting and building a business, I also needed to build-out a lease space to accommodate a veterinary office. Part of the business side of things meant that I needed to build a website for our business. You can see the website at:

I found a logo I liked and got permission from the designer to use it after tweaking it a little bit to my liking. My good friend, Wendi Reni (a fabulous graphic designer), then put it in the proper formatting to then send it to the sign company.

I then used the Logo to design our business card:

I have also needed to design several advertisements for Facebook and build a Facebook Page (which was very challenging for me and certainly could have been done better bv someone who is actually computer literate):

Here is an add I designed for our local business magazine that is delivered with our local newspaper:

As for the build-out side of things, physically building a vet clinic meant designing and drawing the floor
plans, doing some of the construction myself, designing
our signage, and decorating the office. Time was of the essence, so I
hired out the framing, plumbing, and electrical and focused my attention
on the initial design and finally on the finish work. I had to ensure that the design allowed for a functional space that was also efficient within a limited square footage (only 1500sf), could be built quickly, was mostly mobile in case we are able to build our own building someday instead of leasing, and was highly cost effective to be successful despite our very small budget.

We are still adding finishing touches and don't have final pictures of all of the spaces, but here are some pictures of the clinic as it is coming together:

Exterior was fixed since it is a leased space.

Reception

Kids have loved the Children's Play Area that is a make-believe vet clinic

Kids have loved the Children's Play Area that is a make-believe vet clinic

For the past year, I have been crocheting a temple altar cloth while our temple here in Cedar City has been being built. I began work on the cloth as soon as the first renderings of the temple were released. I used those renderings to study the architecture of the temple as I researched various patterns that I hoped would be appropriate for our temple. This is our new Cedar City Temple. Isn't it beautiful?!

Photo from LDSLiving.com

I did not have access to any of the interior design details, and the temple department does not give you a pattern to follow, only basic guidelines and general dimensions. So, I spent several months crocheting samples of various patterns so I could see them and hold them in my hands and pray over which pattern would match the aesthetic of the temple and be most pleasing to the Lord. I settled on a cathedral window design that seemed both appropriate to the historic feel of the temple as well as used various design details that I felt would represent many of the symbols found within the temple. Here are some pictures of the completed altar cloth:

With the temple being built just up the street from our home, my
family and I had the opportunity to walk up to the temple site every
week as the temple was constructed and ponder the symbolism of each
stage of the building process. We took a picture in front of the temple each week as it was constructed. It was a wonderful experience for our
family. This is our final picture, when the temple was finally complete.

When the stain glass windows were installed, I
was thrilled to discover that the circular flower detail matched the pattern I
used for the altar cloth.

Photo from LDSLiving.com

Photo from LDSLiving.com

And, when we had the opportunity to tour the inside of the temple ourselves, I was in tears as I noticed a reoccurring design theme throughout the temple to which this altar cloth perfectly adhered. Truly the Lord does answer prayers and guide us in our decisions. Notice the pattern in the carpet.

Photo from LDSLiving.com

Even the grates in the endowment room matched the altar cloth. These rooms contain the smaller ordinance altars for which I made the cloth. Here is a picture of the altar that the cloth may be used on.

Photo from LDSLiving.com

Before the temple was begun, we had the opportunity to put our names on rocks that were placed within the temple foundation. I have conceived two more children since that time and am comforted by the fact that, while these two children did not get their names in the temple foundation, they are still a part of the sacrifice made to build our temple in that I crocheted the altar cloth during both of these pregnancies. They have also been documented throughout their pregnancies as we have taken our weekly pictures at the temple.

My hope is that as patrons come to serve in the temple, the symbols found throughout the temple and in the altar cloth itself will remind them of the sacred covenants they have made. I am so very grateful for the opportunity I have had to contribute to this holy work and for the lessons I have learned as I have pondered the mysteries of God while offering my own labor of love to the temple. How blessed we are to have a temple we can walk to as often as we like.

Friday, January 6, 2017

So, after crocheting blessing gowns for my friend and sister, I learned that I would be having my first girl (after five boys) so decided I had to crochet one for myself as well. My friend's and sister's babies were both older when they were blessed so I had to make theirs bigger, but my little girl would be a newborn, so I made a smaller one. I crocheted like crazy before she was born and had a gown about 1/3 of the way complete when she was born, but realized as soon as I saw her that it was going to be too small by the time she was blessed (would have fit perfect the day she was born--haha). So I had to start all over! I literally finished the gown 10 minutes before we had to head to church on her blessing day. Talk about cutting it to the wire! I am so glad it is done. It turned out beautiful.

My son caught this picture right after she was born, when I began the new dress (you can see I'm still pale from blood loss and multi-tasking by crocheting while I burped her after nursing, but I knew I didn't have much time to get it done and had to get started since I had to start all over).

Eve's Blessing Day: most of the people who came had already headed off to class when we took this picture (we are missing, Bill, Brian, Amanda and Ryan, all my boys, and almost all the other cousins, but they were there for the blessing).

By the end of the day, after the blessing and after feeding a million people who attended the blessing, Eve had had it and wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot. Plus, all the natural light was gone. :( So these are the best photos I was able to get of her in her dress (not good at all). Hopefully my sister got some better ones on her camera. I will have to dress her up again for some more pics in better lighting when she isn't so tired. UPDATE: scroll down to see some better pictures at the end.

Eve's Blessing Day

Here are some pictures of the completed gown. My mom had a tiny little slip from when I was a baby that we were able to use under the dress. I can't remember who gave me the beautiful little booties that I've had for years, but they matched perfectly.

Eve wore a pretty little slip under her blessing gown that my mom had hung onto from when I was a baby:

This beautiful man, my husband, blessed this beautiful baby. I love them so much. He really loves
his bay girl:

I had to get some pictures with her too, even though I didn't have any time to put makeup on first:

Eve was much happier for today's photo shoot. She is so beautiful, this is the best I could narrow down her photos:

Help my sister grow her family!

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A Master of None

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What this is all about:

So, I want to use this blog to share with my family and friends the projects that I work on. I try to work on projects all the time to keep sane. The process of project-working has helped me learn many new skills. People have called me a renaissance woman, but I don't really think that accurately describes me. A renaissance woman would have mastered several skills. I must say that I do not really ever master any of them, because I like to learn new things before I get a chance to master the old things. So, I would consider myself more a jack of all trades, master of none; hence, the title of the blog. Or, more accurately, jack of many trades master of none. Enjoy.